JACK BENYON
“National rallying proved strong at Autosport Show”
A
n initial look at the Autosport Show suggested there was a fair gap in the itinerary, with Wales Rally GB and the British Rally Championship lacking a stand for the 2019 unofficial season launch.
However, it didn’t detract from some brilliant stories coming out of Birmingham. And it’s not often that is written.
As ever, my colleague David Evans had his news snout firmly planted to the ground and delivered the news of Rallying Team UK, which by my maths is an investment well in excess of £3 million, an unprecedented sum for rallying. Detail is extremely light, so let’s hope these young hopefuls haven’t been given false hope and the new initiative is set to signal a rebirth of a junior development scheme worthy of UK competitors.
Speaking of development schemes, the work going on in the Welsh Rally Championship is phenomenal. For years, it has had the feel of shadow, following the BRC for the majority of its rounds and lacking a significant USP.
Thanks to the hard work of David Evison and his team, that has been well and truly reversed with the addition of Craig Parry and Killian Duffy. The contacts of both have meant that for £40, you can register for a class that awards R5 tests for its victors. Good luck finding that elsewhere in the UK and Ireland.
Parry in particular has had some spare time on his hands since his career-ending crash last year. But he’s attacked the future of the Welsh series with the same ferocity as he did the stages, all while recovering the feeling in his legs. His walk from the train station to the stand at the NEC was far more triumphant than any journey made by the WRC drivers on their walk from stage to stage.
The Welsh series took refuge on the Rally4wales stand this year, and to see its huge Volvo road regrader in the hall was a show-stopping site of majesty, not just for what the machine does but for the achievement it represents, R4W basically saving Welsh rallying from oblivion when it took over from the government in repairing Welsh roads in 2017. The success Richard Ceen and Jamie Edwards have spearheaded has without doubt made what the Welsh series is doing with juniors possible, by offering them beautiful stages to rally on in the first place.
And building on my words from last week, we have more and more R5s coming out of the woodwork for the Irish Tarmac and British Rally Championship, a far cry from last year. Enda Mccormack, Sacha Kakad, Josh Moffett and Alan Carmichael are all new entries to the BRC in R5s for 2019, and the Galway entry list for the ITRC is building rapidly. The signs are good for a R5 rebound in 2019, even if the formula is still too expensive for national rallying…